As promised! Here it is!!!
The Glory Days Pt. 2!
These have got to be my favourite days especially the chunky twist era! Oh my days! My chunky twists were the ONE ☝🏼 What was just a trend for most ladies, I was certain I was going to live in for the rest of my life- I swear! If not for hairdressers trying to extort me. I will tell you more about that in my final but most sensational celebratory post Glory Days Pt.3!
I wore the chunky twist look for as long as I could during my transitioning period. I felt beautiful. I felt awesome. I felt confident, all because I had what I thought was the perfect hairdo. So perfect, nothing could replace it. But thanks to london hairdressers inflating their prices and then me moving to Germany, my love affair with chunky twists was short-lived.
Now if you’re thinking, ‘Cocoa, but surely there were African hairdressers you could have gone to in Germany.-‘ You are right, there were. Mostly in the city. But remember y’all, I lived in the village and those hairdressers were hard to come by. Trust me, I tried. I search online, I asked people and pretty much nothing in my area. It was like they lived under rocks or something. So it was either I make a trip to the nearest city (Cologne) ask every black person I see on the street (in my broken vernacular-Deutsch) for directions to a hairdressers and if I was lucky enough to find one, spend a lot of money I didn’t have back then. Or finally start learning my natural hair. Which is what I did in the end and the reason this blog was born. But I didn’t start learning my hair straight away. When I couldn’t do twists no more, I still searched for extended alternatives.
When preparing for the move, one of the things my mom packed into my bag asides the African food stock, was a few packs of expressions. She made sure they were the right colour too – 1B. Obviously they were going to come in handy someday. Thanks mom! They did but not till I wore my last chunky twists to death. When my edges were over grown on one side and started coming out, I wore my twists all to one side to cover the loose hair. When they were overgrown on both sides, I created a new look by corn-rowing the loose hair on both sides and having just the middle in the twists. I looked like a rebel without a cause. But I loved it. When even the middle started looking ratty I still was not willing to let go of my twists. I think I wore them for over 3 months! But in the end they had to go and I was left alone with my teeny weeny afro. I felt naked. I found the packs of expressions in my bag my mother put there and decided to cornrow my hair myself. I had no clue what I was doing but it turned out good. I was pleased with myself but that didn’t last long either. I ran out of extensions and had trouble again figuring out what to do with my hair.
The day I discovered it was just me and my teeny weeny afro from now on, I nearly cried. My hair was happy it could finally breathe but I wasn’t. I had gotten so used to being saved by some sort of extension on my head. I worried I didn’t know what to do with it. I worried my husband would look at me and think, ‘Imposter! Where is the woman I married?’ But to my amazement, he was thrilled to see me with my natural hair everyday. Sometimes, when I think about it, I tell myself he conned me to move with him. Cos boi, if I had known that I would be struggling with my hair as I did, I would’ve stayed put in UK. In the safety of an unlimited supply of hair extensions along with the pleasure of overpriced hairdressers with iron fists.
When he said with that dreamy look in his young and charming eyes, ‘Babe, take my hand and come with me to my beautiful Deutschland and we can begin our wonderful life together there.’
I should have replied. ‘Oh of course my darling, just hold up, let me do a quick check on google maps to make sure there are african hairdressers within 20km of where we will be staying and places where I can get my hair extensions from. Otherwise, you can go by yourself and we will just have to continue this marriage via skype.’ Lol imagine that. If I did, this blog would have probably been called Girl vs Long Distance Marriage.
But being the hopeless romantic that I am, we never had that very important discussion and I let myself be whisked away by Prince Charming to a land of uncertainty. But that’s love isn’t it? Such is my life.
Anyways, these are some of my best pics from 2014-2015.
Enjoy!
Till next time,
Peace and love ladies! 😘
